The main character in 'Hana-bi' is a very violent man. He is a cop, he fights crime, he lives among criminals, he reacts violently because of his profession, and because of the people he needs to deal with, but all this tough behavior hides immense suffering and infinite love. It's not an easy film to watch, and effort is required from the viewer to understand the story. Not only are not narrative rules respected, but the logic of the film lies more in the emotions of the main character, with the temporal plan interleaved with flashbacks that eventually put everything in place, and with elements of plastic art, in a very Japanese way.
Director and lead actor Takeshi Kitano have already made us face some of the other tough cops or stone faced samurais. What is different in this 1997 film, maybe his best, is that behind the mask of toughness and violence we discover the human tragedy of a father having lost his only child, and a husband close to losing his wife to a non-curable illness. He will do everything to protect her, to create a wall of protecting love away from the cold winds of the furious world around, and this is the beautiful meaning of this astonishing film, which is after all also, beautifully and incredibly, a love story.
Director and lead actor Takeshi Kitano have already made us face some of the other tough cops or stone faced samurais. What is different in this 1997 film, maybe his best, is that behind the mask of toughness and violence we discover the human tragedy of a father having lost his only child, and a husband close to losing his wife to a non-curable illness. He will do everything to protect her, to create a wall of protecting love away from the cold winds of the furious world around, and this is the beautiful meaning of this astonishing film, which is after all also, beautifully and incredibly, a love story.